< Proverbs 2 >

1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,
My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
2 make your ears pay attention to wisdom and incline your heart to understanding.
So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, [and] apply thine heart to understanding;
3 If you cry out for understanding and raise your voice for it,
Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, [and] liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 if you seek it like you would seek silver and search for understanding as you would seek hidden treasures,
If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as [for] hid treasures;
5 then you will understand the fear of Yahweh and you will find the knowledge of God.
Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6 For Yahweh gives wisdom, from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding.
7 He stores up sound wisdom for those who please him, he is a shield for those who walk in integrity,
He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: [he is] a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
8 he guards the paths of justice and he will preserve the way of those who are faithful to him.
He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and equity, and every good path.
Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; [yea], every good path.
10 For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
11 Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you.
Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
12 They will rescue you from the way of evil, from those who speak perverse things,
To deliver thee from the way of the evil [man], from the man that speaketh froward things;
13 who abandon the right paths and walk in the ways of darkness.
Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
14 They rejoice when they do evil and delight in the perversities of evil.
Who rejoice to do evil, [and] delight in the frowardness of the wicked;
15 They follow crooked paths, and using deception they hide their tracks.
Whose ways [are] crooked, and [they] froward in their paths:
16 Wisdom and discretion will save you from an adulterous woman, from an immoral woman and her flattering words.
To deliver thee from the strange woman, [even] from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words;
17 She forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.
Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
18 For her house leads down to death and her tracks will lead you to those in the grave.
For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
19 All who go in to her will not return again and they will not find the paths of life.
None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
20 So you will walk in the way of good people and follow the paths of righteous people.
That thou mayest walk in the way of good [men], and keep the paths of the righteous.
21 For those doing right will make a home in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it.
For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.
22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the faithless will be cut off from it.
But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

< Proverbs 2 >